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Does it ever feel like alcohol is available and encouraged…..everywhere? From baby showers to brunch, from sporting events to birthday parties, it seems like everywhere you turn these days people are having a drink to “relax” or “take the edge off.” Over the past few...

“Here we are. Again.” Tara sighed and bit her lip. She and her husband Neal sat in my office, looking miserable. I had seen them 8 years ago for affair recovery … and somehow they were back in the same place. Tara, angry and hurt. Neal, with tired eyes and guilt-gray...

“I’m afraid they’re not going to like him…” Mitch blurted out. We’d been talking for 20 minutes about his new boyfriend, his tight friend group and the internal conflict he was having about introducing them. This is a scenario I hear pretty frequently. A new love...

“I just don’t get it…. Why are people so selfish?” Liam wrinkled his brow as he looked at me for an explanation. After 3 months in counseling, he was frustrated, confused, and burnt out. He couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong –– in each and every relationship...

The tension in the room was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Mike and Stephanie, a couple in their early thirties that I’d been working with for several months, sat in my office, awkwardly looking away from each other and occasionally shooting me desperate...

Daniel stared furiously down at the toothpaste tube. It was flat in the middle, with a gaping pocket of toothpaste at the bottom. Again. “How many times do I have to tell her that toothpaste is supposed to be squeezed from the bottom UP! Everyone knows that! This is...

For years I was proud of my ability to go along to get along. As a daughter of divorced parents, being a people pleaser and peace keeper came naturally to me. It wasn't until my first Christmas with my now husband that I started to see what I was missing by keeping...

Have you ever felt like someone is taking advantage of you? Like it was all about them and never about you? It’s pretty terrible. That dynamic can breed hurt feelings, confusion, and eventually tons of resentment. This is especially true in romantic relationships. But...

Have you ever met someone and thought, “Wow! He ‘s so __________.” And whatever fills that blank is like the most amazing quality. You are totally magnetized by his __________-ness. It is hands down, super sexy to you. And if the two of you get together, over time you...

Have you ever been talking with your partner and suddenly it feels like things went from zero to 100 in about two seconds? Suddenly you’re confused, surprised and overwhelmed. You have no idea why things escalated to such a bad place so quickly. What the hell...

It’s that liminal in between time that people usually don’t talk about. You know, when the relationship is emotionally over, but on the outside it appears to still be a relationship. When there is no more togetherness or connection. When the will to try to resolve...

“Such bullshit. When I look back on it, I can’t even believe it was all going on right under my nose,” quipped Ryan (not his real name). As a newly divorced, late-thirties father of two, Ryan suddenly found himself in the midst of a bitter divorce. It was the result...

Have you ever wondered “How did we get here?” in a relationship? Things started off all moonlight and romance, and then one day it’s like there’s some crazy underlying cold war dynamic where you and your partner seem to be getting along on the surface, but your...

Bringing up painful subjects is often, well, painful. And if what you have to say is received poorly it makes the topic all that much more volatile. For a higher success rate and less tears, I highly recommend being strategic in how you approach difficult topics....

Long term love is made up of many things: compromise, romance, friendship…and windows of time where you wonder, “how in the hell did we get here?” We’re all familiar with the warm and fuzzy stuff; it’s the hard times of exhaustion and emptiness that throw us for a...

Let’s be honest--being an Entrepreneur can be hard work, really hard work. But it can also be incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. When I first started Love Acumen I was filled with excitement, enthusiasm and energy. Much like when you initially fall in love. Picking...

How could something so obscure and downright gross sounding help your love life? Okay, you got me, it’s a metaphor. For the past few months I’ve been in a power struggle with my three year old. I am determined that she will take fish oil on a daily basis, if it is...

The past few weeks in my world have been filled with pull-ups, potty training videos, tee-tee picture books and repeated “accidents.” You know, the kind that involve having to wipe another person’s butt clean, change their clothes and wash whatever furniture they’ve...